JRM Racing joins FIA WEC with HPD ARX-03a

Having recently secured the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship for drivers, JRM Racing has today announced that it will contest the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012. The team will take part in the brand new global sports car series at top level, by entering a car in the LMP1 class.

Following recent negotiations, the team can confirm that it will run a single LMP1 Honda Performance Development ARX-03a in all of the season’s eight rounds, which includes the legendary Le Mans 24-hours. JRM Racing has said it wishes to run three drivers in the car and is aiming to announce who has been selected by mid-January.

“After achieving success at the highest level of GT racing, we are now looking for a fresh challenge and we see competition in Endurance events as the next step for the team”, said JRM Group Executive Director James Rumsey. “We have chosen the Honda as it’s a well-developed package and currently the most competitive of the petrol-engined LMP1 cars.”

The team makes no secret that it is looking to repeat the early success it achieved in GT racing. It will therefore embark on an extensive test schedule ahead of the first race of the season, which takes place at Sebring on 17th March.

Teams competing in the Endurance World Championship (WEC) must enter the Le Mans 24-Hours and applications to take part will be put forward for selection by the Endurance Commission. The classic event represents the third round of the Championship and the opportunity to participate has had a bearing on the company’s decision towards its 2012 programmes, as Mr. Rumsey explains: “Having Le Mans included in the calendar is a significant factor for us. It has always represented the pinnacle of motorsport achievement and therefore, it’s been a goal of ours to compete since the company started racing two years ago. We therefore hope that our entry will be accepted this year.”

Although turning its attentions towards the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012, JRM confirms that it will retain its strong and successful association with NISMO (Nissan Motorsports International Co. Ltd). It will continue as its official partner for the ongoing development and sales – in Europe, Russia and the Middle East – of the GT3 GT-R, which is due to be launched at Autosport International next week.

The company is also eager to point out that it would be pleased to enter the FIA GT1 World Championship for a third season if the right deal can be reached with a sponsor. Equally, JRM would be keen to provide a customer team with technical support and the benefit of its championship winning experience.

Further details about JRM Racing’s plans for 2012 will be announced during the next few weeks.

(Editor’s note: despite the Le Mans Series logo’s on the renders this car will definitely race in the FIA WEC)

It’s a good perspective for the 2012 WEC races that after Toyota and Honda strengthening their activities, the gap between Audi and Peugeot at the top and the LMP1 privateers will not be as big as it used to be. On the other hand, that leaves “pure privateers” like Pescarolo quite hopeless in LMP1. Henri should make a deal with a factory, too, either for engine or for chassis or both, otherwise his outdated chassis/engine combination will end up filling the gap between the LMP1 and the LMP2 lap times.
I’m looking forward to hear about JRM’s driver lineup – I hope we will see David Brabham back at the wheel of a good prototype.

I heard about a possible GT team with HPD but didn’t expect JRM to be the team.
@kw While watching the ILMC race at Imola there was an interview with Henri and he mentioned research into building a new car for 2012.

All the factories want to work with well heeled teams. Pescarolo Sport spent itself during all those battles it had with Audi in the mid 2000s.

But Hughe Dechaunac seems to always reinvent himself.

So if Henri wanted to still be in the top flight, given his credentials it shouldn’t be that hard to find a backer to procure one of these for him. So as it is, I’m broken that one of my favorite teams (Team Pescarolo) is falling farther and farther behind.

Honda is not really going to challenge for overall victory, rather they are most likely competing for the privateer cup. What I hope is that this is a sign Nissan intends on moving up to Lmp1, presumably with Signatech and JRM.

Does anyone else feel that the fin looks much worse on open cars than closed cars? The Audi, Peugeot and Lola all look decent, although hardly pretty, but The 03a, Oreca and Pescarolo all look odd.

Great news for the sport, but I’d love HPD to make the 04a a coupe, and the coupe design seems to be the way to go with these new rule changes, plus I’ve heard that Wirth already has a coupe design well on the way.

@William
I hope Brabham is in this car, Ausie representation in protos is severely lacking lately! And yes, the fin looks worse on open cars the fin flows into the roof, but on open cars its just out in the open.

r.e. Karun, F1’s loss is our gain. It’s awesome that the F1 drivers are well represented in Endurance racing, they are the cream of the crop, it’s just there are not enough race seats to go round, look at poor Nico Hulkenburg, he seems awesome, but can’t get a seat. Give em a prototype, it makes our series much better.

@Phil:
Nico Hülkenberg will be in the Force India in 2012, while on the other hand Adrian Sutil still doesn’t have a F1 seat.
I guess there will be several former F1 drivers looking for 2012 prototype cockpits now, apart from Chandhok also Bruno Senna, Jaime Alguersuari, Narain Karthikeyan, Nick Heidfeld, and others.